The Jews in America [Paperback]

Arthur Hertzberg (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 15, 1998

<P>A controversial examination of the Jewish ''success story" in American that questions notions of identity, assimilation, and ethnicity.</P>

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"Jews in America, in Hertzberg's contentious, continually surprising history, faced deep-rooted anti-Semitism. By overcoming it, partly through assimilation, he asserts, American Jews have nearly lost their spiritual identity," PW commented.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

This insightful and provocative volume reinterprets the American Jewish experience, stressing continuities through time, the uneasiness of the Jewish encounter with America, the community's poor, uncultured, and antireligious roots, and the development of "Jewishness" in place of traditional Judaism. Hertzberg, a historian and intellectual, writes engagingly and presents American Jews with a "usable past." He eschews filiopietism and implicitly challenges the "at-home-in-America" theme that characterizes previous one-volume accounts. But much is left out of this history; some broad generalizations demand serious qualification; and--worst of all--errors abound. Not only are names, dates, and details wrong, but a major episode, a supposed 1854 court suit by Isaac M. Wise, never happened. While this is a stimulating work that raises significant questions, it must be used with caution. Still, for most libraries. Jewish Book Club main selection.-- Jonathan D. Sarna, Hebrew Union Coll.
Jewish Inst. of Religion, Cincinnati
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 409 pages
• Publisher: Columbia University Press (March 15, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0231108419
• ISBN-13: 978-0231108416
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #109,479 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars A good group read, January 11, 2012

By 

Ellen L. Platt - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: The Jews in America (Paperback)

I am a member of a group of women that reads books slowly and discusses what we read on a weekly basis. We have a leader who assigns additional things for us to look up and do. We have taken this book and have picked people mentioned in the book to read and write about, either in the first person, as journal entries or in the third person. It has been very enjoyable and has brought the book and our history more alive that way. I had reservations about the book because of not very good reviews on the first publication. The author has a new foreword and has adjusted the book answering all the problems that were in the first publication. I am enjoying this newer edition.

2 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars great service, July 4, 2009

By 

marv (ohio) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Jews in America (Paperback)

I ordered this book to replace a borrowed one. I was embarassed at its
loss and wanted it to replace it quickly. the book arrived quickly just
as promised.